Wisdom Takes Work by Ryan Holiday

For our first meetup of 2026, we will be completing the Ryan Holiday virtue series with "Wisdom Takes Work". Wisdom, the Keystone Virtue upon which proper exercise of all the other Virtues rely upon, is generally considered something that is gained through experience. As Mark Twain said, "Good judgement is the result of experience and experience the result of bad judgement.”. Is Wisdom a skill that can be honed by anyone, regardless of "experience" though? We will look into this and how Wisdom interfaces with the first three books in the series.

We will also be reviewing Notebook 1 of the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. This notebook has a different format than the remainder of the notebooks and focuses on Gratitude. Who would you write an entry into your Notebook about?

For more information on Stoicism, please visit https://sites.google.com/view/stoic-virtues-book-club. We meet in-person at Panera in Renton, hope to see you there!

"Wisdom Takes Work" Description from the Daily Stoic Store:
"Of all the Stoic virtues—courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom—wisdom is the most elusive. And in today's world of instant reactions and constant chatter, true wisdom through restraint and thoughtfulness has become even rarer.
But in Wisdom Takes Work, Ryan Holiday demonstrates how you can cultivate wisdom through reading, self-education, personal experience, and more. Drawing on the lives of great thinkers like Montaigne, Seneca, Lincoln, and Joan Didion, he shows us how to listen more than we talk, think with nuance, and ruthlessly question our own beliefs.
This timely book both identifies our current crisis of wisdom and charts a path forward. Holiday’s message is clear—wisdom may take work, but it's worth to your life is priceless."